


Picnic

by balloonstand



Series: Why isn't there more shadow travel fic? [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alcohol warning, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3809995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/balloonstand/pseuds/balloonstand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The campers get assigned mini-quests as practice, and Percy and Nico get teamed up together for theirs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picnic

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t believe this took so long! I just 100% forgot about it until like a week ago. If you have been waiting for this next installment, thank you so much for your patience! I love you and I promise the next one will come much quicker.
> 
> This one is not a sequel to the previous installment, it is just the next fic in my personal quest to make more stories operate on the excellent shadow-travel plot device. So you don't need to have read the first fic for this one to make sense.

The idea is simple enough, and once the campers have time to adjust to it, they all get competitive fairly quickly. Chiron may have announced the mini-quests to dead silence around the campfire – “They are completely safe, I promise. Think of it as a training exercise, or a large scavenger hunt.” – but the next day there are jeers and taunts as the whole camp gathers to hear the teams for these mini-quest assignments, just like there would be for capture the flag or any of the other inter-camp competitions.

Percy feels just as competitive as everybody else. This summer has been great, just like every summer at camp is, but it’s been quiet of late and Percy is getting restless. Not bored, but just- bored. This mini-quest will be the perfect opportunity for some good, non-lethal fun. Also, he has this _in the bag_. And winning is always fun.

“Quiet, please,” Chiron says, holding up his hand. The campers settle down, though glares and small projectiles are still thrown around among them.

Percy doesn’t know if all this competitiveness comes from being young and at summer camp, or from the godly half of their DNA, or from something they put in the water at Camp Half-Blood, but no one – not a single camper – messes around when it comes to camp-wide competitions. Percy loves it; it’s that kind of single-minded determination to crush all opposition that really comes in handy when they are battling the forces of evil. It also makes it just that much more satisfying to win those camp-wide competitions.

“Listen, everybody,” Chiron is saying. “The Oracle and I have discussed your quests at length. As I call your names, stand up. Once everyone in your group has been called, step forward to the Oracle to receive your quest. Tomorrow morning, your quest will begin. The first group to return to Camp after completing their quest will be crowned the victors. They will be exempt from camp chores for the rest of the summer.”

An excited murmur runs through the group as Chiron begins to call names. Slowly groups form and receive their mini-quests. The mini-quests are simple things like “Fetch me this ancient and terrible object of great power” and “Bring the gorgon’s head to my table so that I may use it as my cereal bowl.” Percy thinks that Rachel is having a great time delivering all of these assignments in her smoothly calm prophet’s voice. She catches Percy’s eye and winks at him. He grins back, thinking that she must have come up with something particularly good for him.

One by one, Percy’s friends are called to their groups. They have been spread out pretty equally among the groups. As much as Percy wants to work with them, he is fine with this. He already knows that they’re great together; he doesn’t need a mini-quest to confirm it.

“Percy Jackson.”

Percy stands up. He is the first one called for his team.

“Nico di Angelo.”

Percy looks around in surprise. He hadn’t expected to be teamed up with any of the campers he had quested with before. Nico barely meets his eye as he stands.

“Come forward to receive your quest.”

Percy might not be great with numbers, but he does a recount that confirms that Chiron has only called two names. Most teams had six or seven names called.

_Cool_ , Percy thinks as his first thought. _I’m worth three or three-and-a-half people_.

This is apparently not Nico’s first thought. He beats Percy to Chiron and when Percy gets within hearing range, Nico is asking if there was maybe a mistake when Chiron picked the teams.

“No mistake, Nico,” Chiron says patiently. “And there will be no switching teams either, so don’t ask. The Oracle and I picked your team and assignment carefully.”

“You want me to work with Percy?” Nico says. “We’ve worked together before.”

“And we will undoubtedly need you to work together again.” Chiron glances over at Rachel as he says this and Rachel meets his eye seriously. Percy wonders if Rachel saw something, got some inkling that he and Nico would have to work together in a more high-risk, lethal sort of way. He feels self-important again.

“Go get your quest,” Chiron tells them.

Rachel grins at them as they approach. “I picked a good one for you guys,” she says magnanimously. “A classic.”

She lays it out for them and it’s a lot more straight forward than Percy is used to or expecting; she tells them to find and retrieve some special flower thing guarded by some monster thing. It sounds like cake. Percy has this in the bag. He and Nico together have this in the bag in their sleep. They don’t need any more teammates.

*

Percy doesn’t know how shadow travel works. He has only done it a handful of times and he usually had more urgent things on his mind than the logistics of this form of travel. Honestly, it had never really seemed like any of his business. It isn’t like he will ever have to learn how to shadow travel himself. He is happy to leave that to Nico.

So he had no idea that sneezing while shadow traveling would be so catastrophic.

It all happens in perfect sequence, so there is no questioning the cause-and-effect relationship. Cause: Percy sneezes. Effect: Percy and Nico are yanked from the shadow zone and hit the ground in the real world hard.

They land on lumpy, pokey, unsympathetic terrain. Percy thinks there might be broken glass underneath him.

Distantly, he hears screams. He lifts his head to see two people running down the hill that he and Nico have apparently landed on. He drops his head back on the ground, wincing as it collides with something small and hard. He digs it out from under his head to see what it is. It is a small black box, the kind that fancy jewelry usually comes in. Percy thumbs the lid up. Inside is a beautiful diamond ring.

“Nico,” Percy says. “I think we crashed someone’s proposal.” Literally.

Next to him, Nico groans.

Percy sits up and takes in his surroundings. He and Nico are sprawled on a picnic. It is a nice picnic, with real plates and cups. There is a little wicker basket with a baguette and a bottle of champagne sticking out of it. A plate of cupcakes and a cheese tray are both carefully laid out. The whole scene is covered in a smattering of rose petals and the tree above them has balloons tied to its branches.

Nico bursts out laughing as he looks around the romantic picnic scene.

“Yeah, we definitely interrupted a proposal,” Percy says. He thinks of the fleeing, screaming people and winces. At least its an engagement story they’ll remember.

Next to him, Nico pulls himself up into a sitting position and peeks into the wicker basket.

Percy tries to get back to his feet. His whole body protests, feeling like one big bruise from their crash landing. “Come on,” he tells Nico. “We should get going.”

Nico raises an eyebrow, then goes back to his important work of selecting which cupcake he is going to eat.

“Nico,” Percy says. “Mini-quest. Camp glory. Let’s go.”

“Percy,” Nico says, imitating him. “I can’t. I need a minute to get my shadow traveling back. Food will help.” He takes a big bite of his cupcake.

Percy hesitates. He wants to get back to the quest. It is a race, after all. But if Nico can’t shadow travel then there’s no point in dragging him away from the picnic. “All right,” Percy says reluctantly. “We can take a little break.” He sits back down on the picnic blanket and fiddles with the engagement ring box that he is still holding.

Nico holds the cupcake platter out to Percy and Percy snags one. He unwraps the paper slowly, trying to coach himself into patience. His mind keeps flitting back to the mini-quest. He and Nico still haven’t talked about it at all. Percy knows that some of the other teams held strategy meetings, but he and Nico apparently reached the implicit agreement to just wing it. Percy wonders if they should discuss mini-quest plans.

He glances up at Nico, who is still working on chewing his huge mouthful of cupcake. His flingers poke and prod along his body, testing the severity of his injuries from their crash landing. It strikes Percy as incredibly lonely, the habit of someone who is unused to having someone else around to check his injuries for him. Percy has never really been Team Mom, but there is something about seeing Nico quietly log his injuries that brings out a protective, almost maternal instinct in him. Percy has lots of friends, so it makes sense statistically that he would have a friend like that. And of course that friend is Nico. Words about planning and strategy falter in his throat and Percy grasps for something human to say to Nico, something to let him know that Percy is there with him.

“You have frosting on your cheek,” is what he ends up saying, leaning back casually on his elbows so that he won’t fuss over Nico’s bumps and bruises.

Nico scrubs at the wrong cheek and takes another, more modest bite of his cupcake.

“Other cheek. Like this.” Percy points at his own cheek.

Nico wipes the other cheek, getting the frosting this time. He looks at it for a moment then shrugs and eats it off of his finger.

“All right, you’ve had your cupcake,” Percy moms at him. “Time to get back to the quest.

“Not yet, I think I need another cupcake before I can shadow travel again.”

Percy watches him pick out a second cupcake, spending his impatient energy on fiddling with the engagement ring box. When that cupcake is gone, he tries again.

“Are you ready?”

Nico rolls his eyes and puts his hand out. Percy latches on to it. “Shouldn’t we be standing for this?” Percy asks.

Shadows creep in timorously around them and blur their view into the real world. Then they’re gone and Percy and Nico are still on the picnic hill, unknown miles away from the flower and glory and a summer free from chores.

“Darn,” Nico says. “Maybe I should try eating another cupcake.”

Percy narrows his eyes. As Nico starts hunting for his next cupcake, Percy says, “That’s okay, while we wait for you to recharge-“ Nico shoots him a glare for his word choice “-we can just talk strategy for our mini-quest.” Percy ignores Nico as he mumbles something that sounds like _you can try_. “We could try to do a Mission Impossible: Mystic Flower thing where we pop in, steal the flower then shadow travel away before the monster notices.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Nico says halfheartedly through a mouthful of cupcake.

“Or,” Percy continues, “we could try to fight by-“

“Percy,” Nico interrupts, “I can’t rest my shadow travel and talk battle strategy at the same time.”

“You’re not really worried about this mini-quest, are you?” Percy says, realization dawning on him with all the speed of a sleepwalking snail.

“No,” Nico says easily. He stuffs the rest of the cupcake into his mouth.

“Don’t you want to win?” Percy asks.

Nico frowns at him and holds up another cupcake as if in answer. He pulls off the paper and take a big bite. Percy struggles as he tries to understand Nico’s priorities.

“It’s not like it’s a real quest. We’re not saving the world. It’s summer and I just want to sit here,” Nico says humbly, “and eat my cupcake.” Percy is ready to splutter his indignation but Nico says, “I can’t remember the last time I had a cupcake.”

Maybe it’s calculated, maybe Nico knows exactly what he is doing when he quietly reminds Percy that he had his childhood denied to him in every possible way. But it doesn’t matter if it’s calculated, it is true and it shuts Percy up. Nico is right, this mini-quest is too easy for them and if they give it their one hundred and ten percent effort, they’ll be the first team back at camp by a mile.

“I love cupcakes,” Percy concedes. That earns him a quick smile and another cupcake. “Where are we, anyway?”

“How should I know?”

“You brought us here.”

“You really have no idea how shadow travel works, do you?” Nico says. He sounds irritated, but he looks amused. He picks the champagne bottle out of the wicker basket and rolls it in his hands. Percy waits for him to say that he is thirsty and needs a drink before he can shadow travel again, but Nico doesn’t seem to realize that he is holding the bottle. What a dangerous habit, Percy thinks fondly, for a demigod to have. Absentmindedly fiddling with anything within reach is a good way to get yourself accidentally fatally wounded. He realizes that he is still playing with the engagement ring box and he drops it into his lap.

“Don’t tell me that you need to be buzzed to shadow travel,” Percy says.

Nico looks at the bottle in his hand in surprise. “Maybe I do,” he says. “Maybe it helps to be…buzzed.”

Percy laughs. “What about me? Should I be drunk too? Will that help you shadow travel easier?”

Nico looks vaguely horrified, and Percy doesn’t know if it is because Percy’s joke is bad or if it is because Nico is imagining him drunk. Or both. Affronted, Percy says, “Hey, I’m not that bad when I’m drunk.”

“You’ve been drunk before?” Nico asks.

Percy blinks. “Of course.” It’s not true. He’s only had half of his mom’s beer at dinner one night, but Nico doesn’t have to know that. “Haven’t you?”

Nico frowns. “Yeah, of course.” He is blushing, putting lie to his words.

“Right, because you can’t shadow travel without it.”

“Right.”

“So drink some and let’s get going with our mini-quest,” Percy says, only belatedly aware that he is peer-pressuring. “I mean-”

“Fine, I will,” Nico says. He pulls the wrapping off the bottle and begins to work at opening it. Percy takes pity on him after a minute of him struggling with the cork and takes the bottle out of his hands. Nico pulls two beautiful champagne flutes from the basket.

Percy thumbs the cork up little by little until it pops out, shooting loudly across the blanket and down the hill. Foam spills out and Percy holds the bottle as far from his body as he can. Nico holds up the glasses and Percy pours a mouthful of the André into them.

“Cheers?”

“Cheers.”

They down their drinks and Percy wrinkles his nose against the bubbly feeling. The taste is actually not bad though. Percy knows that champagne is one of the gentler alcohols, but the taste is really much better than he expected it to be.

“Huh,” Nico says. He has a thoughtful look on his face.

“More?”

They each drink two more full glasses before Percy remembers to think about the mini-quest again. And even then it is only to speculate whether or not they can put off doing the quest stuff until later. The warm feeling from the champagne is making him want to stay in one place and not have to think about fighting a monster. Nico has started toasting everything in his eye line except for Percy and Percy is much more interested in waiting to hear Nico’s toast to him than he is in trying to complete his quest. Mini-quest. Shades of the excitable boy Nico unabashedly was when Percy first met him are peeking through. The more they drink, the more Percy sees it. Percy keeps pouring them drinks.

“And you,” Nico says, raising his empty glass to the tree next to them, “you’re so big and shady and I like you. Thanks, tree.” He tries to take a drink and looks very confused when his glass yields nothing to him. He holds it up to Percy. “I need to toast the tree, but there’s nothing in here.”

“You drank it all,” Percy says fondly.

Fond. That is a good word; Percy understands that word deeply right now. It gives him a tight, warm feeling across his body, a swell of emotion. He is _fond_. He is fond of the cupcakes and the booze, the picnic at large. He is fond of the engagement ring that he can’t stop fiddling with. He is fond of Chiron for thinking up these mini-quests that brought him here. He is fond, so fond of the pink blotches on Nico’s cheeks. He wonders if they would be warm to the touch. He thinks that they probably would be. Everything about Nico seems warm to Percy right now. He is radiating warmth, dripping with it.

“Is there more?” Nico asks hopefully.

Percy pours the rest of the André into Nico’s cup. He raises his own. There is not much left in it.

“Cheers, Nico.”

“Cheers.”

Percy empties his glass and closes his eyes as he swallows. He feels a little like he is floating for a moment, before he tips his head back down and it suddenly feels much too heavy to float. He opens his eyes and Nico is looking at him.

“I’m drunk,” he confesses, only really realizing it for the first time as he says so.

Nico pats him supportively on the knee. “I know.”

“You’re drunk too.”

“I know.”

“We still have to do our mini-quest.”

“I know.”

“You know everything.”

“I know more things than you do.”

Percy sighs. It’s probably true. “You haven’t toasted to me yet,” he says. It might be whiny; it is definitely needy. But it is true and it has to be corrected.

“I-“

“ _Know_ , yeah, I know.”

“But I will,” Nico says. “I was just waiting.”

“Saving best for last?” Percy teases.

“To Percy,” Nico says loudly. “I think he saved the world a couple of times. Not bad.”

_Not bad_. What an epithet. Percy Jackson: Not Bad. Nico is clearly a goddamn genius.

Nico takes a quick drink after his toast. “Now you have to toast me.”

“I don’t have anything left,” Percy says, holding up his cup as proof.

“Here,” Nico says, rising to his knees and scooting toward Percy. “Have some of mine.”

Percy knees his way forward too and tries to hold his cup steady as Nico transfers a mouthful of André into it. He glances up at Nico and Nico looks back at him. They are so close that Percy almost goes cross-eyed trying to make eye contact. They sway and their noses bump. Nico drops his glass to puts both hands on Percy’s shoulder to steady them. Percy grins his apology. Nico’s hands grip into his shoulders.

“Wait. I want to try something,” Nico says slowly. His hands slide in so that his thumbs are on Percy’s neck. He leans in slowly. Percy is drunk enough that he is still surprised when Nico puts his lips gently but squarely on Percy’s. It is a quick kiss and Nico drops his hands as he leans back.

“You kissed me,” Percy says.

“Yeah.”

“Was that what you wanted to try?”

“Yeah.”

He pauses and licks his lips. “So? Was it good?”

Nico gives a little shrug. “It was kind of short.”

Percy frowns. “Is that bad?”

“It might be better if it’s longer,” Nico says.

Percy nods. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Try it.”

Nico frowns and then smiles and then leans in and kisses him again. Percy puts his cup down and puts his hands on Nico’s shoulders for balance as he tips his face to get a better angle on the kiss. He counts to himself, trying to figure out how long the kiss should be. He must mouth the numbers as he counts them, because his lips are parting and Nico’s do too. The kiss deepens and Percy forgets about counting. He forgets to wonder why they are kissing, content with the easy pleasure of feeling someone else’s lips on his.

When they finally pull away, Percy ducks his head to look right into Nico’s eyes, trying to gauge Nico’s reaction. “Was that better?”

“Shh,” Nico says. “More kissing.”

There is a lot more kissing. Percy loses track of it. Different things drift in and out of his focus as they demand his attention. Sometimes it is Nico’s hands and the way they feel on his neck or his back. Sometimes it is his own hands and the feeling of Nico’s hair underneath them. They tip over at one point and then it is the feeling of Nico’s stomach on his stomach, especially the way it tightens with his breathless laughter.

Nico lays half on him, looking down at Percy with a clear, open expression and bright eyes. He looks so happy that it makes Percy laugh in happiness too.

“This is good,” Percy says. It’s completely inadequate but it’s true and it’s the best Percy can do with all the alcohol in his bloodstream.

Nico kisses his forehead and then his cheek and his chin. He grins at Percy as their eyes meet again.

Maybe the thought is late in coming, but Percy suddenly thinks that Nico might actually like him. Maybe he isn’t just kissing because kissing is nice and because they’ve killed the bottle of André. Maybe Nico is kissing him because he’s Percy. The thought mixes up his insides, throwing him off-balance more than he already is from the booze. But it’s in a good way. His body floods with a pleasant warmth and he feels a little lightheaded. He needs to do something, show Nico that he understands.

“Hey, wait a sec,” he says, struggling to sit up. He fumbles around before he finds what he is looking for. “Nico, I like this. This is really good. And we should do it again.” He holds up the box with the engagement ring. “Right?”

Nico’s eyes get big before they crinkle with his smile. He holds out his hand, palm up, and Percy drops the ring onto it. Nico holds the ring up to see it glint in the fading sunlight.

“Which hand do I put it on?” he asks.

Percy’s mind is blank. “Right?” he guesses.

Nico slips it on to his right hand. He smiles at it, then at Percy. Percy tips Nico’s head back with a finger under his chin so he can kiss him again.

*

He wakes up dead. He wishes he was really dead so that he wouldn’t have to experience the corporeal pain of this hangover. He is never going to drink again, not one little drink for the rest of his natural life.

He tries to take account of his surroundings. He is lying on his back and Nico is tucked into his side, pressed against Percy from his shoulder blades to the small of his back. Percy nudges him.

“Nico.”

Nico groans as he wakes up.

“Nico, be honest,” Percy whispers. “How close am I to dying right now? I’m close, aren’t I?”

“My head is going to fall off my body,” Nico whispers back. “Why did we drink that whole bottle?”

“We’re idiots.”

They lay there quietly for a minute. Percy’s body hates him so much. His head pounds and his stomach gurgles sickeningly and he feels like he is on the brink of whatever the human equivalent of a nuclear meltdown is.

Something occurs to him.

“Hey, Nico,” Percy says, his mouth so dry that it is hard to form words. “Tell me that you finished our mini-quest while I was passed out.”

“Yeah,” Nico says. “I got up early and did the whole quest. I fought the monster, got the flower, the whole thing.”

“Really?”

Nico rolls over on his side and Percy hears retching sounds. The smell of puke fills the air. Awesome. Percy feels a sympathetic tug in his own stomach. He tries to keep it down.

“We- we have to go get that flower,” Percy says. “Do you think you can shadow travel?”

It’s an experience that Percy never wants to repeat, but they manage to get there. In the austere shadows enveloping them as Nico propels them towards their goal, Percy pukes his guts out. Nico makes a sound that is half laughter and half groaning.

“If we travel back this way, are we going to run into that vomit?” Percy asks in serious concern.

The sun, when they find their way back into the real world, is ruthlessly bright. Never mind fighting the monster, Percy isn’t sure he can defeat the sunlight to get this flower.

“Okay,” he says, pressing his fingers into his temples to try to soothe his headache. “What did Rachel say the flower looked like?”

“I wasn’t listening, but I think it might be that one with the monster in front of it,” Nico says. He points at a patch of white and gold flowers about thirty yards away from them.

Percy closes his eyes against another wave of nausea and tries to pump himself up for this fight. “Okay, let’s do this.”

He plucks his pen out of his pocket and immediately drops it on the ground. It takes him nearly a full minute to retrieve it. Bending down to get it is clearly out of the question. He has to lower himself carefully into a seated position, get the pen, and fight his way back to a standing position. He is covered in a sheen of sweat by the time he even gets his weapon out.

In the end, the killing blow comes from Percy literally tripping over Nico – who had given up on trying to fight and was laying down on the ground – and poking the monster accidentally with his sword, killing him. In their relief that it is over, Percy and Nico almost forget to grab the flower.

“Let’s go home,” Nico says.

“Wait,” Percy says, catching Nico’s arm. “Do we look hungover?”

He looks at Nico with his red-ringed eyes and his roughed-up hair and that engagement ring still on the wrong finger. Or the right finger, Percy can’t remember where he landed on that one. He might look hungover, but the generous coating of monster blood on his clothes also makes him look like he is the emerging victor of a wild battle.

Nico is giving Percy the once-over. “You look how you always look,” he says. “Except for- here.” He finger combs Percy’s hair into a more respectable state. “Now you’re fine.”

Seeing that Nico is still wearing the engagement ring on the hand he combs Percy’s hair with makes Percy feel good for the first time since he woke up this morning. He even manages to smile weakly at Nico as they hold hands to shadow travel back to camp.

They have to go slowly, traveling in increments, because it is too exhausting for hungover Nico to get them all the way there in one go. Percy is grateful because the shadow zone makes him feel even sicker. The sense deprivation should be soothing, but it just makes him focus even more on the fact that a naval battle is raging in his stomach and a pack of hellhounds is racing around his brain. By the time they finally make it back to the camp boundary line, it is late in the day, probably around dinnertime.

Dinner. Thinking of food makes Percy want to vomit all over again.

“Where is everyone?” Nico asks.

“Maybe we’re the first ones back.”

They’re not.

Every table is full of campers eating dinner and laughing and talking loudly. Percy’s head pounds and he sees Nico wince out of the corner of his eye. He squeezes Nico’s shoulder bracingly.

“Well, well,” someone calls out as they approach. “Look who is finally back!”

Everyone stands to give them a sarcastic standing ovation. Their clapping and cheers pound in Percy’s skull.

“Please, please,” he says modestly, holding up his hands for silence. “We don’t do it for the recognition.” He would beg them to stop clapping if he didn’t think it would just make them clap louder.

“Percy, Nico,” Chiron greets them. “We were just about to send out a search team for you two. Did you run into trouble completing your quest?”

Nico and Percy exchange a look.

“Not really,” Nico says.

“Did you get the flower?” Chiron asks.

“Uh, yeah, it’s-“ Percy pats himself down trying to remember which pocket he put it in. Nico taps his right pocket to remind him and Percy pulls it out. It is crumpled and dropping its petals quickly, but otherwise it survived the trip just as much as Percy and Nico did.

Chiron covers his face with his hand for a moment and then sighs deeply. “That is the wrong flower.”

The whole pavilion bursts into applause and laugher. Nico sits down at the nearest table and presses his forehead onto the tabletop.

“What do you mean, it’s the wrong flower?” Percy half-whispers, not quite up to speaking full-volume.

“This flower is white,” Chiron says, like he is actually being helpful. “The flower we asked you to retrieve is blue.”

“We already lost though,” Nico says into the table. “So what does it matter?”

“You’ll have to try again. You must complete this quest. You can try it again tomorrow.”

They get sent back to their cabins without dinner, and Percy thought that _go-to-bed-without-supper_ thing only happened in movies about farm kids. Not that either of them could stomach a meal anyway. Percy stops outside of his cabin and turns to Nico.

“So.”

“Yeah.”

“We have to do the mini-quest again.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be hungover next time.”

“I guess. If you say so.”

Percy grabs Nico’s hand, the one with the ring on it. He folds Nico’s other fingers down until it’s just the ring finger. “I had fun on our first mini-quest, though. Despite the hangover.” He flicks his eyes up to Nico’s before he drops a quick kiss to the ring. “I don’t mind doing it again, do you?”

Nico smiles. “No.”


End file.
